Alternate Gettysburgs

A collection of short stories that I assumed from the title would be about alternate Battles of Gettysburg. I was only partly correct, some of the stories were actually about alternate actions during the battle, however a bunch just assumed an alternate outcome and dealt with some future time where the CSA had won the war. A number of stories dealt with the assassination of Lincoln in one way or another.

While the first story by Harold Coyle and the last essay by ACW historian and SF writer William Forshen were good, I don't recommend the rest, they were mostly throw away stories from authors I've never heard of with varying degrees of historical inaccuracy. The were also two additional non-fiction essays one of which read like an elementary school text book. And one of which started out poorly, so I skipped it. ( )

"Alternate Gettysburgs" occupies dangerous and even crowded ground as we have seen a proliferation in recent years of "Alternate" history collections on a range of historical events and historical figures. The quality of these collections varies rather widely and I suspect that I'm seeing a pattern as well in that each of these volumes leads off with its best offerings and then the reader either slowly or quickly descends. How far that descent takes one is the measure of how good or bad that particular collection is.

I would rate "Alternate Gettysburgs" as clearly above average and among the better of these collections. The allegedly descending quality of its presented essays or stories is not precipitous and even includes one presentation by Simon Hawke that offers a good refutation of what I consider to be one of the worst examples of alternate history. Gettysburg holds an amazing grip on the American psyche, especially in the South, but also in the north though memories of that conflict come and go. While it may be true that for every southern boy it is the afternoon of the third day at Gettysburg and he stands in the ranks behind General Pickett prepared to cast his all into the fray and win final victory for the Southern Confederacy - I would hold that there are also those for whom it is the second day and they are standing on a wooded hillside with almost no ammuntion left and waiting for the Rebs to make yet one more desperate charge and wondering what the former professor of rhetoric who is now their Colonel will do to get the 20th Maine out of its predicament. The contributing authors of this collection have presented an interesting range of possible outcomes and told these new stories of an old war in interesting ways. If you are interested in the Battle of Gettysburg and especially its "what-ifs" or in the possible different outcomes of the war itself, I can recommend this collection. ( )